Dark Eldar
"I will never forget what I saw at Obsidian Station. The bones of five thousand brave men lay scattered about the winding corridors. Their blood was slick upon the walls and floors of the dormitories. Their innards were hung from control panels like grotesque decorations of some insane celebration. But not a single skull was to be found; taken as sick trophies by these despicable attackers." ''- Inquisitor Absolvus'' Dark Eldar Dark Eldar Traditions and Practices Over time, Dark Eldar begin to suffer more and more from The Thirst. They develop an all-consuming and ever-increasing need to drink the souls of other beings. It is postulated that the cause of this is the Chaos God Slaanesh, the Great Enemy of the Eldar, who leeches the soul-essence of the Dark Eldar while they still live. Dark Eldar drink souls to stave off this leeching - perhaps by sating the thirst of Slaanesh, or perhaps by replenishing the essence of their own souls with that of the consumed one. Slaanesh will also consume the souls of Dark Eldar whole should they die. Dark Eldar are long-lived but not immortal; drinking souls has a rejuvinating effect that reverses aging, thus Dark Eldar need not fear falling into the clutches of Slaanesh due to death from old age, if they have a constant supply of souls. The usual source of souls are those of the many captives taken during Dark Eldar raids. (The Thirst is the term used by Eldar to describe the constant, slow drain of their soul energies by Slaanesh, the Chaos God born from their hedonistic social collapse. Because Slaanesh was created by the Eldar in specific, it has a special connection with their soul energies. Therefore, even though the Eldar exist in the Materium, Slaanesh is still able to slowly feed on their souls, and once an Eldar's soul is separated from its body and returns to the Immaterium, Slaanesh consumes it in it's entirety, torturing the fallen Eldar for all eternity. The Eldar combat The Thirst by encasing their souls in crystals, and adding the souls of their fallen brethren to the Infinity Circuit to prevent them from falling into the hands of Slaanesh. The Dark Eldar have no such safeguards, and as such they traveled to The Webway, a dimension created in antiquity between the Materium and Immaterium. Here Slaaneshes effects are reduced as much as possible. It does still affect them, however, and so they go on raids frequently to collect slaves from which to harvest soul energy to replenish their own with.) Dark Eldar Evolution Once part of their sister species, the Eldar, the Pleasure Cultist ancestors of the Eldar race were the cause of the Fall. Before the Imperium rose to power, the Eldar ruled the galaxy and spread beauty and grace to all the worlds within it. Perfectly set in their power, they turned their energies inward in an attempt to improve themselves to the point of perfection. The Eldar sought to experience emotions and sensations to their fullest extent, disregarding the morality of their actions. Foreseeing a terrible outcome, the Seers of the Eldar warned against these "pleasure cults," warning that no good could come out of them. The Eldars' many excesses caused the Chaos God Slaanesh to be born, and its birthcries tore a hole in the centre of the Eldar Empire, leaving only a few Craftworlds that were on the fringes. The hole through which She Who Thirsts (the Eldar's name for Slaanesh) tore from the Warp still remains; it is known by the Imperium as the Eye of Terror. The remaining Eldar were forced to decide to survive after the fall. The Eldar split into two factions: The first group decided to hide from Slaanesh, to follow the path of asceticism. The second group decided to continue to live their decadedant and hedonistic lives. The two groups eventually split, one existed upon the craftworlds and chose the path of resistance to Slaanesh and all emotion, While the second group sheltered from the soul leach in the port of Commorragh accepting the reality of their situation. Dark Eldar Appearance Dark Eldar share almost all the physical traits as their Eldar counter-parts (Tall, slender bodies and pointed ears for example). However their skin tends to be paler then their Eldar cousins and adorn themselves with painful piercings, tattoos and dark, sinister clothing and armor. Dark Eldar PCs Dark Eldar Characteristics Fate Dark Eldar Careers Warrior Wych Assassin Scum Mandrake Haemonculis Dark Eldar Skills All Dark Eldar reside in a city contained in the Webway, this gives them great knowledge of it's workings. Much of this knowledge however is used for the harvesting of souls. They gain, Common Lore (Webway), and Speak Language (Dark Eldar). Dark Eldar Traits I Shall Mutilate The Psyker: '''Dark Eldar have a pure unadulterated hatred for psykers. Many of the ones that are found by the dark Eldar are brought back to the Webway where they are used as play things. for their sadistic hedonistic desires. : '''Benefit: '''The character gains the Hatred (Psyker) talent. '''Swift and Keen: Dark Eldar are incredibly fast and have very keen senses. Much like their Eldar cousins, their range of sense and their speed is far surpasses the average human. : Benefit: '''The character gains the Unnatural Agility Trait (x2) as well as Heightened Senses (Sight, and Hearing) '''The Thirst: '''Unlike the Eldar, Dark Eldar do not possess spirit stones thus their souls are always being leeched away by Slaanesh's thirst for Eldar souls. the Dark Eldar counteract Slaanesh's harvesting of their souls by making pillages to mortal the mortal realm to consume the souls of the living. : '''Effect: After a two days without souls a Dark Eldar will begin to feel they effects of Slaanesh's hunger. The character will take a level of unhealable fatigue for every day until they can once again harvest souls. For every level of fatigue gained this way the character loses 1d5 wounds. This can be prevented when a Dark Eldar slays a foe. When a foe is slain by the character they lose two levels of fatigue and gain 1 wound if the enemy had 10 or less wounds, 2 wounds if they had 11-15 wounds, 3 wounds if they had 16-25 and 4 wounds if they had more than 26 wounds. The Damned Brothers: '''Dark Eldar are largely the remnants of the pleasure cults that caused the Fall of the Eldar. They are far more suseptible to the predation of Chaos than their cousins. : '''Penalty: The character gains twice the normal amount of corruption points that other characters would recieve. Category:Xenos